There's a big sale on the Origin Store celebrating the first anniversary of the launch of EA's online store. They are offering a 40% discount on several PC digital download special editions. Also, MCV notes a Q&A from last week on GameSpot with EA's David DeMartini, who calls the service's first year "a huge success." He also offers a criticism of Origin's stickiness, saying this is something they need to address going forward. "Being self-critical of Origin, I would say it's not sticky enough. And we want to put features in place where we fully take advantage of your friends lists and gameplay activities amongst all of your friends so you can compare achievements," he says. "We want you to be able to challenge your friends, and to challenge your friends to play other EA games to try and achieve things that might even be across EA games. A lot of people are loyal to us and we need to reward them with that stickiness, so we're looking in that direction."

Beamer wrote on Jun 18, 2012, 12:12:The guy you're saying is a hypocrite has nothing to do with the pricing in Europe. It's his belief that deep discount sales damage IP value in North America, so he will not do it in North America. He has no control over, or probably much care about, what Europe does.

Parts of EA oppose price cuts; others support them. The net result is that EA is still a shitty company.

Steam in the UK often offers better prices than the US. For instance, Max Payne 3 is £30 - that's the equivalent of $47, when it costs $60 in the US. Skyrim is £35 / $55, versus $60. And that includes tax at 20%, which I'm not sure is even collected in most US states. So it's absolutely laughable that EA is ignoring the market norms and trying to set its own bizarrely inflated pricing structure.

EA is offering an inferior service at a higher price point. What exactly is there to like about the current situation?